Yes, yes Ludwig, I know all that.

But I have to vote Green to displace Jan McLucas and whoever the other ALP goon is with a Green and whatever...too much to hope for a Sex Party 'member'.

And in the lower house, although I live in a horrible LIberal seat and the ALP goon has no chance of winning, I need to vote Green, and formally, in order that the Greens can pick up their $1.20, or whatever it is, for formal votes won, to help pay their Senate election costs.

So, I will, sadly and pathetically, be filtering my vote to the ALP, but only to benefit the Greens, and at least attempt to influence the final Senate outcome.

Sad... but true, and needed.

I do not feel happy about it at all.

Ludwig, TBC

The PROBLEM with many of the views on OLO and the way the election is being viewed is that parties should be different and that the choices should be black or white. This view flies in the face of logic and reality. We votes on election day for our local member....as OUR representative. We don't *directly* vote to change policy at that time.

Think of it like this;
The election campaign is similar to selling two cans of beans visceral competition between two self interested entities staffed by self interested individuals.

If we wanted artichokes we should have been involved earlier. Then we would have gotten a choice of artichokes.

if we wanted a choice between artichokes or beans then we need to change the system . What we're experiencing the Examinator's Election Effect (EEE)(ok! the middle ground effect) an extreme variant form of the Prado effect....80% of the people vote for 20% of the available policies. Parties would argue why focus on the the other 80% (minority interest) policies? To do so would potentially alienate the middle voters. i.e. Gay marriages .

The only way to avoid this is to change the system, break up, dilute power groupings (vis a vie church influence in politics in this example). Sadly without change no party is going to take on entrenched power groups unions, corps all flavours etc

The Blue Cross, no contest, Julia is the other person I refers to in my other post.
I still condemn everyone who betrayed my party and Kim.
BUT Julia will govern very much better than Abbott, workchoices have no doubt,, will come back under him.
I want one day to understand why Rudd went, but waiting in the wings is a real man of promise Bill Shorten is what Latham and Rudd promised us, no failure if he gets clean air.
Latham, the one who wrote that book no longer exists, a poison spiteful hurt and wanting to hurt person lives in his skin.
Find me just one ALP figure in the history of my party less liked.

This will make you laugh Belly.I wrote this just before Mark was deposed as leader of the Labor Party.The member for Werriwa was hiding in Terrigal at this time.You will also remember at the time we had the tsunami in Indonesia and Mark had a pancreas problem.

Conversation between Julia Gillard and Mark Latham.

Julia; Werriwere you mark?

Mark; In terror gal.

Julia; You'll have to give up the grog Mark,your pancreas is getting livered.

Mark; Pancreas my arze.I tried to crush the hand of that rodent and he rewards my bravo with and electoral flogging.

Julia; Why didn't you say something about Acehi?

Mark; Didn't John abandon Acehi?

Julia;It's Banda Acehi,the Capital.

Mark; Banda Acehi Aid.Is Bob going too?

Julia; Bob Geldorf?

Mark; No Bob Carr.He's my only threat.Get Bob to fix their infrastructure and I'll be in like Flynn.

Julia; We have to ride the great wave of public generosity.

Mark; Soon army will come and wipe out all those who voted Liberal.

Julia; But it's already been.Sri Lanka,Acehi, Thailand,India!

Mark; No, the army.

Julia; The salvos are already there.

Mark; No, my army of Howard haters.We will rise up and smite them down as predicted by Gough the profit.

Well Mark didn't rise up and smite them down.He joined the very harlots whom he hated, ie 60 minutes and is fast becoming something he once despised.People will do strange things in their lust for power and John Howard,Julia Gillard,Tony Abbott are no exceptions.They have all sold us out to large corporate interests.

arjay that was funny.
But you make me laugh in every one of your posts.
I am very much aware of the hiding under the bed at that time.
And the bloke blew away in the wind after his dream of a life crafted to lead proved wrong.
Remember after setting up my booth that election day I shook hands at 8am with the national booth captain said congrats your landslide and came home to cry.
Latham is a symptom of media that has made up its mind lets hope Australia has not.

Belly, the fact that you set up a booth to try to elect Latham, as our PM is what is wrong with your party.

Do you now dislike Latham for what he is, or for the fact that he lost?

Were you still promoting Latham before that election, in the same way that you were so recently promoting, [& believing in] Rudd, & are now promoting Julie?

Were you ever ashamed he was your leader, while he was, or did you only become ashamed of him, after he lost?

I am horrified that many people on here have stated they will still vote labor in this election, even though they expect them to be a lousy government. This tribalism shows such an immature society it is rather frightening.